England win at St George's, go 2-0 up

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Cape Town - Alex Hales
laid the foundation and then Jos Buttler, England’s match-winner in the first
match in Bloemfontein, played another key innings to give England victory by five
wickets with 22 balls to spare over the Proteas in the second
Momentum ODI at St. George’s Park on Saturday.

England
thus lead the five-match series 2-0 and have the chance to take an unbeatable
lead in the third match at SuperSport Park on Tuesday.

The match
was effectively won and lost in the final 10 overs of both innings. The Proteas
were on 198/3 at the end of 40 overs after winning the toss with AB de Villiers
and JP Duminy both well set. However, both were dismissed within the space of
four deliveries, De Villiers falling to a brilliant catch for the second time
in the series and the Proteas were only able to add 64/4 in their final 10
overs.

It left
them probably a good 20 runs short of where they needed to be and so it turned
out as England, on 198/4 after 40 overs, only lost one more wicket in
completing the job. Buttler (48 not out off 28 balls, 4 fours and 3 sixes) and
Moeen Ali put on an unbroken 61 for the sixth wicket in only 5 overs. One over from
Kyle Abbott went for 16 runs and another from Imran Tahir went for 21 to break
the back of the target.

The finish
was perfectly set up for Buttler by Hales who shared partnerships of 97 with
Joe Root and 52 with Eoin Morgan. He was named Momentum Man of the match for
his innings of 99 (124 balls, 8 fours), being cruelly denied a century by a
delivery from Abbott that hit his pad and then clipped his bat on the way
through to the keeper.

Abbott
(3/58) finished with the best bowling figures for South Africa with Morne
Morkel taking 2/31.

Reece
Topley, dismissing Hashim Amla up front and then getting 3 more wickets in the
final 10 overs, was the pick of the England attack (4/50).

The fact
that England had three major partnerships while the Proteas only had one - a
century stand between De Villiers and Duminy - was another key factor in the
outcome.

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